Stranger's Lads
by Dinotz
Summary: What you get when you put in a pot a snarky and disgruntled special forces commander, his lads and a child of Robert Baratheon and Cersei Baratheon...a whole heap of trouble that is what you get. Credit to the bloody masterful NikiVaszi for the cover art, thanks lass.


Gold and red invaded my vision, the smell of shit and sweat filled my nose, the feeling of wood caressed my hands and my ears were filled with the rhythm of my slowly beating heart. Only in background I could distinguish the sounds of the loud crowd which was more like a buzz to my ears at the moment. Slow breaths were coming out of my mouth, getting ready to take aim, shouldering the crossbow I looked down finding my quarry. Felling a hand on my left shoulder I look upon the person who did the action, my deep blue eyes meeting his light brown ones.

He nodded toward the windows of the houses which surrounded the square where grey hooded shapes appeared.

"All the other lads are in position"

His gruff voice pierced inside the space where only moments before there was only the sound of my beating heart.

I nodded back at him

"Good, pick your target, Payne is mine...one volley and we rush, you grab Lord Stark..."

He finished my sentence with a grin

"And you Lady Sansa...wonder why you get to save the lady?"

I shaked my head good naturedly towards him and after returned with my sights on the royal executioner.

"Ain't you too old for her, Roche?"

I muttered back at him while looking towards the stage where 'justice' was going to be delivered by the new king, my brother...well half brother.

Of course my retort was followed by his

"Being cheeky with your mentor, Baratheon? Youngsters nowadays...no respect."

My answer to him was choked in my mouth seeing that suddenly the accusations against Lord Stark stopped

suddenly when the voice of His Majesty pierced the air in the likeness of a squeal.

"ENOUGH! The penalty for traitors of the realm is death, Ser Ilyn Payne, cut the head of the traitorous cur!"

As soon as the words were said two guards seized the already weakened Lord Eddard Stark and forced his head on a marble block. Lord Eddard tried to shout to the king but his voice was coming hoarse

"I will take the Black!"

He declared

Surprise and astonishment rippled through the royal family, especially mother who started trying to reason with Joff, but being the spoiled brat that he was, he listened only to himself.

"Silence! I am the KING and I will decide not you mother!"

He sneered towards our mother in condescension.

Suddenly Sansa looked towards Joffrey with desperation and fear in her eyes. She started pleading.

"No please Your Majesty! he will take the Black! please do not kill my father! I beg of you"

Looking with fury towards Sansa, like she wanted to deny him his toys he again shouted but without any control over his temper it sounded again more like a squeal.

"Ser Boros, teach her a lesson and Ser Ilyn cut the head of the traitor!"

Timed slowed down, I took aim with the crossbow and pressed on the trigger releasing the bolt, as if it waded through water it soared slowly through the air until it pierced the right pauldron of the Royal Executioner armour making him stagger and lose the grip on the ancestral sword of house Stark, Ice. As soon as the bolt hit I came out of the pool were I waded before and time started to flow normally again as the other bolts from the lads hit their marks. One even piercing Ser Blount through the head making him drop like a sack of stones.

A cry pierced through the air, a cry of war and fury.

"Baratheon! Ours is the fury!"

From there on everything became a blur, rushing towards the soldiers I rammed the first with my warhammer making him take a flight and crunching his armour. The fighting started in earnest and all around me pandemonium ensued, screams and war- cries filled the air, I waded through the sea of fighting figures, ensuing that all my challengers fell to the hands of my warhammer.

A dodge here, a hit there, time seemed to lose all meaning while ascending the stairs to the plaza of the Sept where fighting was at its thickest with Vernon Roche himself, commander of the Stranger's Lads, keeping at bay three Lannister soldiers all by himself with in hand the legendary Ice, while two of the Lads helped Lord Stark to get up to his feet.

My focus suddenly switched to the next opponent who was charging at me with a snarl on his burned face, Sandor Cleagane, the newly appointed Kingsguard proved a vicious opponent as soon as his blade crossed my warhammer, dodging and weaving I tried to find a weak point, anything to press my attack on him, but as the dog on the sigil of his family he proved to vicious and furious and forced me on the defensive.

While trying to weave out of his next attacks I didn't manage to move my head completely out of the ark of his slash and his blade kissed my skin making a thin and long line on the right side of my face that started bleeding profusely. I clutched my right side of the face in pain, when I saw the Hound moving towards me I started panicking and patted the right side of the belt, feeling some solid round shape I clutched it and launched it towards the Hound who…... exploded in smoke? Huh? And then it hit me, it was the smoke pellets that Vernon devised, the same fucking smoke pellets that now started to explode around me from all the direction, making sight on the battlefield nigh on impossible. Well impossible for many warriors but not the bloody Hound who came out of his smoke cloud with a vengeance, slashing his sword towards me I barely blocked the hit with the reinforced handle on my hammer, putting me face to face with his ruddy face.

My mind started working furiously, trying to find a solution, any solution to this bloody dangerous situation and suddenly it clicked and I shouted to his face.

"GREGOR! GREGOR! I WILL GIVE YOU THE FUCKING MOUNTAIN, JUST FUCKING STOP!"

His scarred face contorted even into a bigger angry scowl, if that was possible and though I saw momentary conflict in his eyes, his decision was made and the pressure from my handle vanished. He turned his back on me and snarled furiously.

"Go get the Little Bird! You better keep on that fucking promise Baratheon!"

Then with a savage cry he charged the surprised Lannister soldiers and starting cutting them down like twigs. I turned towards where Sansa stood before, fearing that she was already taken but to my surprise a brown cloaked figure was keeping all by himself a bay not one but three bloody knights of the Kingsguard, Mandon Moore, Meryn Trant and Preston Greenfield. I ran towards Sansa who was looking fearfully around, scared with all the massacre around her, confused by the sudden attack. I shouted towards her.

"Sansa! I am coming!"

She looked towards my direction and started running towards me, nearly barrelling into me, I scooped her up and started carrying her bridal style down the steps but not before looking back seeing the remaining Kingsguard retreating with the body of Trant and Greenfield at the feet of the brown cloaked figure who turned towards me, showing none the less than the legendary Barristan the Bold, he looked at me with urgency and shouted towards me, making himself heard over the sounds of battle.

"Run, Your Grace, we will keep them occupied!"

I nodded towards him, the honorific completely flying over my head. Running down the stairs with a northern lady in my arms I felt like I was in some dumb song of the bards, well if you forget the screams, shouts, sounds of blades clashing, curses and the overall smell of shit and guts then yeah it was quite the idyllic scene. Fortunately at the base of the steps the Lads managed to bring some horses including my beloved stallion Storm, bloody big beast he is. I mounted first Sansa on him and I soon followed after. Not a moment later, Roche and Lord Stark managed to get on another horse with Roche taking the reins of the that stubborn bastard of a horse of his that was called Arse….he told me he was drunk when he named the horse, never believed it fully, there was a bigger story behind it. It was quite eerie that I pondered such questions and queries over the sounds of battle and flying bolts, soon I snapped of that state and took firmly the reins of the horse.

"Go Storm! Trample the bastards that will stand in our way!"

With a ferocious neigh Storm began a savage gallop through the streets of King's Landing closely followed by Roche with Lord Stark and a bit further back the Hound who somehow managed to snatch a horse from some poor sod. Moving towards the walls of the city and more precisely Lion's Gate I saw that the fighting there was also thick with a few Lads keeping a bay at veritable army of Goldcloaks that wanted to shut down the gates that were opened prior by a raid of the Lads. The voice of Roche carried through the air, right to my ears.

"Come on! After we get out we split up! Remember we meet again, at Riverrun! "

I nodded towards him fiercely.

"Got it, good speed Roche and may the Stranger don't give a fuck about you today!"

He laughed with mirth

"And neither for the rest of my life!"

We soon passed the Lion's Gate and moved north while splitting ourselves up in various direction. Sansa was understandably distressed.

"Father!"

I tried to calm her down.

"Don't worry it is only for a while."

Looking back I could see that the Hound was still with us. I shouted towards him

"Cleagane we go into the woods! Hope you don't minding sleeping under the stars."

A harsh laugh escaped his lips.

"Better than the fucking city. That is for sure."

I laughed with mirth, the high of the battle finally wearing off me.

"True that Cleagane, true that."

And so we three headed deeper into the forest trying to lose any kind of pursuit. It was a mad dash through the roads and then a more calm trot while turning to go into the forest and so we ended up after hours of trotting through the woods to a clearing where Cleagane suggested to make camp.

Soon a fire was roaring and a bit later on, the yelps of my pain filled the air while Sansa was trying to take care of my injuries but I was a fidgety patient and that irritated Sansa to no end. She tried to keep still my face and dab at my scar with some wine soaked cloth to clear the wound but damn it, the bloody thing stung quite a lot.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow. Okay stop it Sansa, it bloody stings."

Her frown only got harsher and then all my miniscule doubts of her not being a Stark evaporated, there was steel behind that gorgeous face and ice strong as stone was in her eyes.

"If you stay still then all the 'bloody stinging' will finish sooner."

She said to me with a no-nonsense tone that brokered no arguments while still keeping dabbing that bloody cloth to my face. Of course our third companion found all this ensemble rather amusing, watching with mirthful eyes and chuckling all the while, well if you considered the rasping sound he emitted as chuckling then yeah the cheeky bastard was having quite the entertainment for the night. But as if the Father himself decided to grant me poor self justice our noble nurse turned sharply around and with a piercing gaze, that made me wonder who the hell misplaced the shy and meek Sansa with this version, she fixed the now surprised Hound and rising up, moving as gracefully as she would move in a court she came before his face and starting prodding him for wounds and that was my queue to laugh.

After a while Sansa finished prodding us both and sat near me close to the fire, her face sad and looking towards it, she started to mutter.

"This is all my fault…."

I looked towards her worryingly, and put my hand on her shoulder trying to reassure her. But it didn't seem to help very much, she continued to mutter.

"Stupid, stupid Sansa….Arya was right about me, I am stupid."

A snort followed her declaration coming from surprise, surprise, the bloody Hound.  
"At least you admit it."

I just looked at him shaking my head, it wasn't time for his declarations. Sansa sees my action and shakes her head towards me, denying my defence of her.

"It is the truth, I went to the Queen, I told her what my father wanted to do….stupid, stupid….I nearly got father killed and now Arya is gone who knows were."

I looked towards the fire, its crackling sound and light providing a bit of comfort for my mind, not much for Cleagane though, he stood at a distance from it looking with poorly disguised fear deep into his eyes. I then turned to Sansa and embraced her from the side pulling her close to me.

"We all make mistakes, the best thing to do is to learn from them and move on."

Her lips quirked up in a bitter smile

"But my mistakes nearly got people dear to me killed and so many others lie dead...all by my words. Some mistakes are just too costly to even make….fool that I was, getting tricked by all this southtron frippery."

I laughed a bit, seeing the truth in her words but also seeing that she overestimated the role she played in all this bloody mummery.

"Some events, were already starting Sansa and they wouldn't have stopped even if you didn't intervene and we still saved your father and regarding Arya...she is tough as Valyrian Steel and she is a crafty one. I bet she will be at Riverrun before us."

She giggled quietly at my remark and put her head on my shoulders, eyes slowly closing from exhaustion, I covered her with my cloak and she snuggled even more deeply into my side seeking warmth. I nodded towards Sandor who nodded back at me and assumed watch, turning back on the fire and looking towards the forest on the look out for threats.

Sansa meanwhile mumbled some words that I barely managed to hear but when I heard them a small smile appeared on my face.

"Thank you, for everything, for saving my father and for all the good you did to me, my prince, my Lyonel."

Author Note: So here it is something bigger and better written (I hope) than the garbage that is my other story….Jk, Jk.

Anyways I welcome you readers to my small idea and world, a world where we have Roche Bloody Vernon and the Blue Stripes in the form of the Stranger's Lads. Of course the story is fully AU since where is the fun in coping verbatim the books, I barely read the first one, or the show, I barely watched the first episode, like only the beginning (can't bother slogging through 50 minutes now). So I hear you know asking, then why the hell you write about something you barely know about? Well I fell in love with the universe, the atmosphere and the characters that I discovered in the various fanfictions round here also the bloody Wiki paints an extremely fascinating universe. Anyways would be glad to hear your feedback regarding the story and how did you find it.

Wish you the best lads and lasses

Dinotz out.

fff


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